BC residents are happy, but not so swimmingly yet

Dan Kulin

Friday, Feb. 7, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.

Boulder City voters are overwhelmingly happy with their city but say growth and traffic are the biggest problems they face, according to a new survey.

The survey is scheduled to be presented to the City Council Tuesday.

The survey, conducted by Mayo & Associates and Alpha Communications, also showed that most city voters want to replace the swimming pool complex at the city's Central Park. Although the idea of raising taxes to pay for three new pools was unpopular, there was no strong consensus on exactly where to find the more than $10 million that new pools would cost.

"I saw how not to pay for it but not how to pay for it," Councilwoman Andrea Anderson said.

The survey, which cost $16,000, asked 418 residents 30 questions about the city.

The first question asked the respondents to rate the quality of life in Boulder City.

According to the survey, 62.2 percent of the respondents rated it excellent, another 34.9 percent gave the city a good rating and 2.9 percent rated the city as fair. None of the respondents gave the city a poor rating.

When asked to rate the overall quality of city services, 44 percent said excellent, and 47.4 percent rated the city good.

"This shows we're on the right track," Mayor Bob Ferraro said.

When asked what the most important problem facing Boulder City is, 78 people said growth and 66 said traffic. The next most frequently mentioned problem was the economy, which was the top choice of 34 respondents.

Ferraro said he thinks growth topped the list because residents fear the rapid growth they see in neighboring jurisdictions, not because there are growth problems in Boulder City now.

Since the city's growth control ordinance was passed in 1979, the city has limited new development to 120 homes a year.

"But the people see what's in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas and don't want it to happen here," he said.

Councilman Mike Pacini agreed.

"I think people want to remain in a small town and they see what's going on (elsewhere in Southern Nevada) and it plants the seeds of fear," he said.

But Ferraro said he wasn't surprised traffic showed up as a top concern.

"The traffic through here is horrendous," Ferraro said. But the mayor said the traffic situation should be helped by a long-planned bypass highway that will take traffic moving between Arizona and Las Vegas around the city. He said the new highway should be built within the next seven years.

Anderson said perhaps the city needs a third traffic light to improve the flow of traffic through downtown.

The primary reason for the survey was to find out what voters think about replacing pools in the 22-year-old pool complex. In addition to being old, with a maximum depth of 5 feet the pools are too shallow to host competitive swim meets. One of the planned new pools would be 7 feet deep, the required depth for competitive swim meets.

Ferraro said he was uncertain how residents would react to a project to build pools, which he says could cost up to $12 million.

About 76 percent of those surveyed said they were in favor of a new pool complex. However, only 56 percent of the respondents said they supported spending $10 million to replace the pools.

When asked if the city should sell land or raise taxes to pay for recreational programs, 13.6 percent said increase taxes, while 56.7 percent said sell land.

Ferraro, Pacini and Anderson said the survey results show there is strong support for building new swimming pools.

"I think we see a direction people want to go," Pacini said. "The next step is investigating the different ways of funding the project."

Anderson said the council will probably form a committee to look at funding options, which could include a bond or selling city-owned land.

Anderson said the city will probably have a new pool complex within five years.